CSEC English

Hello there! How observant are you? Did you notice that we’ve changed the name of this column? Really we should have changed it long ago, but ‘CXC’ rolls off the tongue so nicely, doesn’t it? The fact is, though, that CXC stands for Caribbean Examinations Council, and now that the Council has increased its range of exams, and now runs CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate) and CAPE (Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination), along with national exams, we need to specify exactly WHICH exam we are focusing on. So from now on, it’s your CSEC page!

Now that we’ve covered all the texts on the English B syllabus, we will look at some problems that sometimes come up in students’ written work. Read on now, and enjoy your CXC, sorry,

CSEC English page.

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WHEN SHOULD I USE THE COLON?

Look at these examples: The doctor said my sister needed a complete change in lifestyle: plenty of rest, regular meals, daily exercise and congenial company. (Colon to introduce a list explaining the ‘complete change’ mentioned.) She should also avoid stressful situations: dealing with difficult clients and responding to phone calls during the night. (Colon to explain/illustrate what is meant by ‘stressful situations’.) Do NOT use a colon if you plan to continue the sentence AFTER the list or explanation. Use dashes instead: The doctor said my sister needed a complete change in lifestyle—plenty of rest, regular meals, daily exercise and congenial company—if she hoped to bring down her blood pressure. Shakespeare said it best: ‘To thine own self be true.’ (Colon to introduce a quo• tation.) Do NOT use a colon if you plan to weave the quotation grammatically into your sentence: The speaker in My Parents confesses that he ‘feared more than tigers’ the bully• ing acts of neighbourhood children, who ‘sprang out behind hedges/ Like dogs… ’ to terrorize him.

WHEN SHOULD I USE THE SEMI-COLON?

Look at these examples: To separate items in a list that already contains commas: Many important dignitaries were invited to the reception: General Brown, Head of the Commission of Inquiry; Colin Marks, Advisor to the President; Anand Ramsingh, Minister of Education; and Alicia Gentle, Chief Nursing Officer. (Because there are commas between the names and designations—e.g. Alicia Gentle, Chief Nursing Officer—it would be confusing to separate the items in this list with commas, so we use semi-colons instead.) To join two sentences instead of using a conjunction: The girls brought food for the picnic; the boys provided transportation to the creek.

WHEN SHOULD I USE A DASH/DASHES?

Look at these examples: A single dash is used to explain more exactly what you are referring to: She turned left at the church—the church opposite the market. He longed to return to his homeland—Canada. A pair of dashes is used to highlight something in the middle of your sentence: Everything on the table—the baked chicken, the garden salad, the fruit cock tail—had been produced on the farm.

SPELLING—SOME BASIC RULES

ADDING –ING Drop the silent e E.g.

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when you add –ing: ta ke taking hope hoping fine fining write writing

Double the consonant in words ending in a single vowel + a single consonant: E.g. hop hopping run running

WHAT MAKES A GOOD TOPIC SENTENCE? A topic sentence is like a signpost: it tells the reader where you are going. If your paragraph is going to talk about cats AND dogs, then your topic sentence needs to indicate that BOTH will be mentioned: • e.g. Cats and dogs are both popular pets, but personally I’d prefer a dog any day.

WHAT IS A DANGLING PARTICIPIAL PHRASE? Look at these sentences that students have written about To Kill a Mockingbird: A By using contrasting characters, we are able to see Atticus’s fine moral qualities. B By describing the activities of the Missionary Society ladies and of the members of First Purchase Baptist, this shows the reader how hypocritical the Maycomb ladies are, and how the actions of the Afro-American Christians are both practical and sacrificial. The phrases By using…..and By describing…are called participial phrases because they use the participle: using, describing. The rule, when you begin with a participial phrase, is this: THE SUBJECT OF THE MAIN CLAUSE MUST BE THE SAME PERSON AS THE ONE DOING THE ACTION OF THE PARTICIPLE. Look: In Example A, we have this: By using…, we are able And in Example B, we have this: By describing…, this shows Question: Who was ‘using’ contrasting characters? Wasn’t it the author? So to follow the rule, the sentencescould be amended like this: By using contrasting characters, Harper Lee shows us Atticus’s fine moral qualities. Question: Who was ‘describing’ the activities? Wasn’t it the author? So to follow the rule, the sentence could be amended like this: By describing the activities of the Missionary Society ladies and of the members of First Purchase Baptist, the author shows the reader how hypocritical the Maycomb ladies are, and how the actions of the Afro-American Christians are both practical and sacrificial.

PRACTICE WITH PARTICIPIAL PHRASES

The underlined part of this sentence is a participial phrase. Can you see the participle? Opening the door of the wardrobe, Uncle Sid reached inside for his new pants. The rule is that the person who did the action of the participle (opening) must be the subject of the main clause. In this case it was Uncle Sid “opening” the door, and it was Uncle Sid who “reached inside”. So the sentence is correct.

Ask yourself who is doing the action of the participle in these sentences, and then correct them. 1 Looking up from the book she was reading, snake on the handrail. Dropping quickly from the mango tree, it was just one quick movement for the young thief to grab his booty and scale the low wall. Putting away her mop and broom, a few minutes to sit down quietly with a drink was all that the cleaner longed for. Pulling up his socks with an impatient jerk, all the centre forward’s attention was fixed on getting that ball between the goalposts. Chewing the end of her plastic pen, the words simply would not come and Anita became frustrated. 2 3 4 5 it was possible for Grandma to see a

1 Disrobing, 2 rubbing, 3 shaping, 4 shopping, 5 excreting, 6 capping, 7 raping, 8 planing, 9 rapping, 10 planning. Practice With Participial Phrases Looking up from the book she was reading, handrail. Dropping quickly from the mango tree, the young thief grabbed his booty and scaled the low wall in one quick movement . Putting away her mop and broom, the cleaner longed for a few minutes to sit down quietly with a drink. Pulling up his socks with an impatient jerk, the centre forward fixed all his attention on getting that ball between the goalposts. Chewing the end of her plastic pen, Anita became frustrated because the words simply would not come. 1 2 3 4 5 step stepping shut shutting Now test yourself. Give the present participle of the following verbs: 1 Disrobe, 2 rub, 3 shape, 4 shop, 5 excrete, 6 cap, 7 rape, 8 plane, 9 rap, 10 plan.

ANSWERS Spelling—Some Basic Rules

Grandma could see a snake on the